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A123 Battery System to Power Navistar’s Electric Class 2c-3 Trucks

A123 Systems has entered an agreement with Navistar, Inc. to develop lithium-ion battery systems for electric vehicles (EVs) for the Navistar Modec Electric Vehicle Alliance, a joint venture between Navistar and Modec. (Earlier post.)

According to the agreement, A123 will develop battery systems for Navistar’s EV and it is expected that these A123 battery systems will be manufactured in A123’s Livonia, Mich. facility, slated to open in March 2010. Rather than converting an existing, conventional fossil fuel powered truck, Navistar’s EV is a commercial electric vehicle that is purpose-built to be electric as it balances the needs of business and the environment. With zero tailpipe emissions, the Navistar EV can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 10 tons annually, when compared to an equivalent diesel-powered vehicle.

The Navistar EV has a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) rating of 12,100 pounds and a payload capacity of two tons. The vehicle will be assembled in Wakarusa, Indiana, and is scheduled for launch in mid-2010.

A123’s battery pack will enable the Navistar EV to travel a distance of approximately 100 miles on pure electricity before needing to be recharged. The battery pack will be capable of a rapid charge rate and will have a charge time dependent on the power of the charging system applied.

Comments

Henry Gibson

At the moment, all lithium battery powered vehicles are too expensive to build and to operate. Try lead batteries. ..HG..

sulleny

HG, but we are building them anyway. The Prius was also too expensive to build 15 years ago. But toyota did it to all our advantage.

Bryan

I will never buy a Prius. I'm not against hybrids, just the fact that the Prius has become a status symbol for rich liberals in my city whose houses consume 3-4 times more electricity than the average household. Irony...

sulleny

Damned rich liberals mess up everything... On the bright side it looks like cost per kWh of Li-Ion cells is going down faster than thought.

http://gm-volt.com/files/DB_EV_Growth.pdf

Deutch Bank sees $400/kWh in the current cycle. Early predictions used $1000/kWh to predict cost of new EV/PHEVs.

Henry Gibson

The Prius is a delightful car and a very good demonstrator of electric technology. If sold in the US, the TATA would save more fuel because more of them would be used. The Prius was highly valuable to Felix Cramer and Ron Gremban to demostrate the plug-in-hybrid reality in a commercially available car. The very simple "ENGINER" plug in prius conversion mirrors one of Ron's later tests.

My major complaint about lithium batteries is that people are being delayed in getting plug in vehicles whilst the batteries are being improved for longer range and super fast charging. Longer range batteries are not needed in a plug in hybrid and neither is superfast recharging. Even the TH!NK had a proposed plug-in-hybrid with a company that made high pressure tanks for hydrogen. Think may sell far more vehicles if they had a 3kw fuel powered generator built in. They could use the OPOC. ..HG..

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